Viewpoint: Botanical Gardens at Villa Taranto

The Botanical Gardens at Villa Taranto in Pallanzo on the shore of Lake Maggiore were established in the 1930s by a Scotsman called Neil Boyd Watson McEacharn…

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Captain Neil Boyd Watson McEacharn (1884-1964) was educated at Eton and Oxford and developed his passion for gardening after his father bought Galloway House in 1908. He bought the estate at Pallanza in 1930 and filled its 40-acre gardens with plant varieties from around the world. He left for Australia at the outbreak of war, bequeathing the villa and gardens to the Italian state, but returned after the war and opened the gardens to the public in 1952.